The invention relates to an attachment for an artificial ligament, in particular a cruciate ligament in a knee joint, which is passed through a guide duct constructed in a bone, the attachment containing a retaining element supported in the bone and receiving an end section of the ligament and a clamping element which can be braced against this end section.
The invention also relates to a process for the implantation of an artificial ligament in a bone by means of such an attachment.
An attachment of the said type known from EP-A-0 465 408 contains a conical attachment sleeve as a retaining element which can be inserted into the guide duct and a radially deformable collet which can be inserted in a self-locking manner therein for retaining the ligament. A similar attachment of the said type is known from EP-A-0 232 049, which shows conical clamping elements which are inserted into a stocking-like ligament extension and are braced via said elements against an attachment sleeve which can be inserted into the guide duct and which sleeve in turn can be subsequently tightened. The known attachments require additional devices and/or relatively expensive adjustment work to tighten or if required to subsequently tighten the implanted ligament in order to coordinate the opposed movements of ligament extension and clamping so that the ligament is established with the desired initial stress.